Free Republic

Our cultural decadence and institutional rot can only be remedied by a movement unafraid to assert virtue throughout society.One item stood out at last week’s Republican presidential primary debate: There was not an explicitly nor implicitly identified libertarian candidate. Ron Paul represented the libertarian faction in Republican debates in 2008 and 2012, and his son Rand Paul assumed the mantle in 2016. Prior libertarian-leaning Republican primary candidates include Barry Goldwater in 1964, Jack Kemp in 1988, and Steve Forbes in 1996 and 2000, yet no such candidate can claim the position in this year’s Republican primary. The lack of a...

Entrenched out of touch political groups lose touch with people and then lose elections. Goldwater shook up the Republican liberals. Ross Perot then hit the GOP again from a different place. Hillary Clinton suffered it twice first from Barak Obama and then Donald Trump. Clive Palmer is shaking the tree in Australia. He swung the 2019 election from the Australian Labor Party's Union heavyweight to proud Christian Scott Morrison. In 2022 he is giving non political young libertarians like Becky Spelman a chance to compete. This looks good to me.

Freedom anywhere is a threat to authoritarianism everywhere. That is why authoritarians must destroy all freedom and why liberty lovers, and even the merely “lib-curious” (liberty curious), must not just resist blatant authoritarianism, but reject it in all its guises. The fate of the nation, and the world, again hangs in the balance. To the extent that any freedom persists, authoritarian diktat can be subverted, albeit at a cost. History is rife with examples of bizarre entities, like nonbank banks (I kid you not!), rent-a-banks (ditto!), and gold caches, designed to work around branching restrictions, usury laws (maximum interest rates),...

With the departure of Justin Amash, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is the closest thing to a libertarian left in Congress. So it is not surprising that a political action committee aligned with the senator would work to identify and promote libertarian candidates, nor that it would endorse them in primary races. And it is not surprising that Paul would endorse the more libertarian candidate in a Republican primary, even if President Trump had endorsed a rival. He endorsed Manny Sethi over Trump’s pick, Bill Hagerty, in the Tennessee Republican Senate primary in 2020. Hagerty won and is now senator. Paul...

The question of how to counteract cancel culture goes far deeper than the question of legal or illegal speech.While some Republicans build their campaigns around cancel culture in the form of a broad bumper sticker slogan or rebuke the party for seeking leaders dissimilar to neoconservatives like Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the issue of standards—and what those standards ought to be—should be at the heart of the cancel culture discussion on the right. It’s time for conservatives to make morals a focal point and not overgeneralize by invoking free speech as an end-all, be-all. Cancel culture, which Federalist writer Tristan...

Last time we met in Orlando, Bob Murphy mentioned how much worse our political and social divide would be if the economy crashed like 2008. Now we face this very problem—with COVID-19 lockdowns and George Floyd protests decimating the economy and social media exposing raw animosity along racial and "woke" lines. Congress and the Fed have gone into overdrive creating new stimulus and "liquidity," but 40 million Americans are unemployed and major cities are still recovering from turmoil. The national debt tops $26 trillion while tax receipts at all levels of government plummet. So what does it all mean for...

Had he stuck around Mr. Milton Friedman would have turned 108 years old yesterday. This week's episode of The Resistance Library podcast focuses squarely on the great libertarian economist and firece critic of Keynesian economics. Perfect to listen to if you've just paid taxes last month! You may also read our very own Sam Jacobs' article on Mr. Friedman here: ammo.com/articles/milton-friedman-forgotten-history-godfather-of-american-conservative-libertarianism

During the debate on the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in contemporary history, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did something appalling. With the agreement of both Republicans and Democrats in House leadership, the Speaker blocked a recorded vote on the bill. It is an old leadership trick to protect members from controversial votes by not forcing them to take a position. In retrospect, this is going to be one of the most important votes the sitting members of Congress will ever take, yet they came up with excuses not to...

Modern libertarianism is founded on ideas of the prevalence of individual rights, privacy, and respect for private property and the absolute negation of coercion and involuntary restrictions toward sovereign individuals. Traditionally, compulsion is associated with the institution of the state, which libertarians consider a necessary evil. However, we should not forget that the emergence of the state logically follows from the libertarian philosophy itself. It recognizes that humans are lawful owners of their bodies and consciousness and varying in their physical and mental abilities. At the same time, all humans are born free and equal before the laws of the...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves of this popular show last night to lambaste Austrian economics and libertarianism, which he views as twin pillars of a failed ideology that doesn't protect American workers and their interests.The GOP, he argues, is in thrall... Fox News host Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves of this popular show last night to lambaste Austrian economics and libertarianism, which he views as twin pillars of a failed ideology that doesn't protect American workers and their interests.The GOP, he argues, is in thrall to free-market corporate interests and esoteric economic theories from dusty...

This is a listing of the various types, and sub-classifications of American conservatism today. As one delves deeper, one can clearly see that modern American conservatism comes in many types, shapes and flavors. There is no “one size fits all” American conservative. Here we discuss 29 different types of American conservative. The key to the success of any Presidential Conservative candidate or President is to be able to unite all these disparate groups under one singular banner. Is it even possible? [1] The members of the “conservative movement.” We start right off, addressing one of the most common themes used...

Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris recently supported legalizing prostitution in an interview she gave to the Root: “But when you are talking about consenting adults, I think that you know, yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed,” she said, meaning that she would still support laws that would punish human trafficking and exploitation of women. Surprisingly—or not—this idea has also been embraced by certain segments on the right, especially among libertarians. Elizabeth Nolan Brown, an associate editor at Reason Magazine and an advocate of the sex trade, said Harris...

Dave Smith and Robbie The Fire Bernstein bring you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem Dave Smith is joined in studio by Pete "Mance Raider" Raymond, and they discuss the transformation of the left to fascism, and how the american media responded exactly according to the plan of the mosque shooting. The guys also discuss the herd mentality of the left.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2019 Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released the following statement after voting to disapprove of the national emergency declaration regarding the border: “I stand with President Trump on the need for a border wall and stronger border security, but the Constitution clearly states that money cannot be spent unless Congress has passed a law to do so.” On March 4, 2019, Dr. Paul introduced the Border Enforcement, Security, And Funding Enhancement (BE SAFE) Act as a constitutional, fiscally responsible alternative. The BE SAFE Act would impose a $2,500...

The national debt hit $22 trillion this week. You won’t find many in either major party who think this is a healthy development. But isn’t part of the reason people vote Republican because that party presents itself as fiscally responsible compared to Democrats? For as long as the debt has grown, Republicans have been promising to stop it. Yet, in 1981 the national debt topped $1 trillion after former President Ronald Reagan’s first year. When former President George H.W. Bush left office in 1993, it was more than $4 trillion. His son, former President George W. Bush, would push it...

On a very special episode of “YOUR WELCOME” with Michael Malice, libertarians Tom Woods and Matt Welch meet for the first time. Tom Woods is a bestselling author and host of the “The Tom Woods Show” and “Contra Krugman” podcasts. Matt Welch is editor-at-large for Reason magazine. Listen as two men from the two wings of the libertarian movement discuss the issues that have caused so much internecine division over the past decades.

Jerry Taylor believes he can change the minds of conservative climate skeptics. After all, he helped plant the doubts for many in the first place. He’s president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian-leaning Washington, DC, think tank he founded in 2014. He and his colleagues there are trying to build support for the passage of an aggressive federal carbon tax, through discussions with Washington insiders, with a particular focus on Republican legislators and their staff. Lesson one: Pick the right targets Political scientists consistently find that mass opinion doesn’t drive the policy debate, so much as the other way around....

"There can be no tolerance toward democrats and communists in a libertarian social order."

Duke University historian Nancy MacLean, not content to do slap and tickle histories, has gone on to trivialize a malady that afflicts millions. "Nancy MacLean, the Duke University historian who wrote Democracy in Chains, the deeply conspiratorial and much-criticized biography of public choice economist James Buchanan, told an audience in New York last week that Buchanan and other early leaders of the limited-government movement 'seem to be on the autism spectrum,'" Robby Soave reports on Reason.com. "According to MacLean, there is a connection between autism and libertarianism, and that connection is not feeling 'solidarity or empathy,' and having 'kind of...

Claims by police apologists that a "war on cops" ensued from a reform movement that emerged after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, has no statistical support. Preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) finds that 128 police officers died in the line of duty in 2017—44 of them were fatally shot. Last year 64 officers were fatally shot. And since 2011, the numbers have largely gone down. In the meantime, police have fatally shot 971 people so far this year—the youngest of them just 6 years old. Last year, 963 people...